PRR Project

Summary

The prospective employee will be tasked with leading innovative research projects contributing to our understanding of the interactions between the nervous system, psychology, and the immune system. The candidate should have completed a PhD in the field of Psychoneuroimmunology at least 5 years ago with a proven track record of high-impact research publications (at least 4 first publications in Q1 journals as first author).  The research will involve projects studying fundamental mechanisms of immune signaling in vitro as well as working with patients/ patient materials. To this end, strong skills in interdisciplinary collaboration are essential. The candidate should have extensive knowledge of basic biomedical laboratory techniques as well as the organization of studies of patient populations including knowledge on ethical guidelines on clinical studies. It is further critical that the candidate has an established international network of collaborators which will also support future applications for consortium-based European funding, including the Twinning Program and the Initial Training Network (Horizon 2030).Science divulgation is a critical part of showcasing the research performed at Ualg/ABC-RI. The selected candidate will be expected to communicate his/her research results to scientific peers as well as the general public. The position thus requires a researcher with excellent presentation skills as well as fluency in written and spoken English. Extensive experience in presenting research results to scientific peers as well as to the general public is highly valued. Also, the organization of scientific events and outreach activities will be part of the assigned tasks. Experience in these activities is therefore required.The faculty (FMCB) provides courses in Biomedical Sciences at undergraduate, master´s, and doctoral levels, as well as an integrated master’s in medicine. Integrating cutting-edge research within FCMB enriches biomedical sciences education, providing students with firsthand exposure to the latest discoveries and techniques, thereby ensuring a contemporary and relevant learning experience. The field of psychoneuroimmunology has the potential to link different relevant disciplines (including but not limited to neurosciences, immunology, neurodevelopment, and endocrinology) as well as having the potential for translational research with clinical involvement. The prospective employee will be supervising thesis projects to foster teaching in a cutting-edge research environment at both undergraduate and graduate levels and supervising PhD students. The candidate should thus have extensive experience in supervising Bachelor and Master theses. A strong international network will facilitate attracting motivated international students.The ABC-RI´s strategic aim is to expand its research capabilities with high quality research projects to increase research outputs. To this end, the center aims to increase the number of senior researchers within the short term. The research focus of the institute is on aging, brain and cancer. The burgeoning field of Psychoneuroimmunology show-cases the critical impact of neuroimmune interactions on health and disease. Importantly, this position has the potential for collaboration with existing research groups, as all existing groups have common interests with psychoneuroimmunology, e.g. microbiome, endocine-immune interactions, immune effects in embryonic neurodevelopment, iPSC derived models of neurodevelopment, epigenetic mechanisms in psychoneuroimmunology, gene-editing technologies to study immune-behavior interactions in rodent models, effect of physical interventions on immune-brain interactions, and psychoneuroimmune mechanisms on cancer progression/treatment.